2021 WEEK 32: Sound

“Sound is the vocabulary of nature.” – Pierre Schaeffer

While photography is a visual art, I thought it would be fun this week to engage more than just our visual sense when making our photos. In particular, I want you to make the viewer hear something (in their imagination) when looking at your photo. There should be plenty of sounds that have a near universal shared experience among those who have the ability to hear – and even those who are deaf can often feel the vibrations of sound waves of some louder sounds.

Record Needle by Eric Minbiole
When I look at this photo, I “hear” (in my imagination) the scratch of the needle across the grooves of the record, but someone else might hear their favorite song of their childhood – the one that they played over and over. That said, it’s possible that those who are younger than I may not hear anything at all because they’ve never used a record player and can’t relate to it! 😉

There are a few ways you can go about the challenge this week. The most obvious is to take photos of things that make a sound that most people can relate to: musical instruments being played, a baby crying, traffic in a city, water boiling on the stove, an insect buzzing, wind through trees, etc. The trick is to figure out how to photograph the subject in such a way as to make the viewer hear the sound in their head.

Sound by Gerwin Sturm
The vibration of the lower string lets the viewer know that this instrument is being played. If the viewer plays guitar, they might even hear the exact note that this string makes. And even though I’m not a guitar player, I can imagine the sound of a single string being plucked even if it’s not the exact note.

You might also choose to sit quietly, close your eyes and take notice of your local soundscape. For example, I am currently sitting at my father’s kitchen table in the early morning hours. I hear a clock ticking, the air conditioning, and my fingers typing on the keyboard. A bit earlier I heard water boiling as I made my morning coffee – and then the sound made when I poured that coffee into my mug. And now I hear the garbage truck outside. Not all of these will make a great photo, but a couple of them might and at the very least I have quieted my mind to better focus on the task at hand.

Time by Eric Minbiole
By using a slow shutter speed to capture the motion of the pendulum, it’s more likely that someone will “hear” the tick-tock of the clock when they view the photo.

This week’s challenge summary:

Create a photo that makes the viewer hear a sound in their imagination.
Post your photo during the week of Sunday, August 8 and Saturday, August 14.

The friendly community guidelines are pretty simple:

Take a new photo for the current weekly theme, not something from your back catalog or someone else’s image.
Post your photo each week to our active communities on Facebook or Flickr (or both). Tag the photo: #2021photochallenge #photochallenge #tempusaura
Don’t leave home without your camera. Participating in the 2021 Trevor Carpenter Photo Challenge is fun and easy.